Black Sea-the protagonist of this book: being honest and foolish, being humiliated.
Black Sea was regarded as a cowardly man from the moment it appeared. He is only about ten years old, short and small compared with other children of the same age. In early winter, he only wore a pair of dyed big underpants, which was left by his father when he traveled to the East. The ribs and chicken breast, and the shiny scars on his back and legs show how cruel he was abused by his stepmother. He shouldered the burden of life prematurely, worked like an adult to earn work points, and was humiliated and beaten by some people. In the eyes of ordinary people, a child without self-defense ability can't survive in such a harsh environment, so there are two sentences at the beginning of the captain, "Black boy, are you still alive?" "I think it's time for you to meet the king of hell." For all the chances of survival, the Black Sea instinctively refused to give up, so "he only wore a pair of shorts, bare back and bare feet in the freezing cold weather; He can hold the red-hot steel in his hand without shouting; He can turn a blind eye to the wounds on his body. " The Black Sea, which survived in this way, has tenacious vitality, and the Black Sea has never resisted the hardships in life. With great perseverance, he endured the slavery and abuse of the little blacksmith, the indifference of the old blacksmith, the hardship and roasting of the bellows. It seems that he has long been used to this inhuman life, and he has the perseverance to live in a painful reality. As a weak person, Black Sea expresses its strength in a masochistic way. It is this forbearance that has created the tenacious vitality of the Black Sea.
What impressed readers most was the Black Sea's pursuit of beauty and rich inner world. A child with a closed heart is far more sensitive to sound, taste and touch than ordinary people and full of mystery. The work is about a child's inner world, the reflection of people and things in the external world life in a child's heart, and a child's mentality. This is a deformed mind distorted by a deformed society. In his lonely heart, all kinds of feelings are extremely keen.
Agatha (female name)
Agatha, a beautiful and kind girl, helped the little black boy on the construction site and was the first person to make the little black boy feel warm. The Black Sea regards Agatha as a symbol of his mother, but his stepmother's abuse of him in real life made him doubt the concept of his mother, so his attachment to Agatha, who is similar to his mother, turned into hazy love to some extent.
Understand; Understanding
Mo Yan didn't create this novel to express a clear theme. On the contrary, he mainly describes life forms and consciously pursues the richness contained in his works. In this way, we can only understand this work from the image of the protagonist, the little black child.
When portraying the image of the little black child, the writer's pen and ink focus on two unharmonious aspects: on the one hand, the misfortune of life experience and the misery of fate, on the other hand, the intelligence and alertness of the child and the self-esteem and strength that are not commensurate with his age. Poor little black boy. It's cold autumn, and adults all put on their coats. There is only a big stained underwear on his body, and this underwear is obviously left by his father who went south to Kanto. He pulled such a big bellows that the thin man leaned forward and leaned back, struggling. "In the ribs of his left chest, his heart beats pitifully like a little mouse"-the novel uses this thrilling exaggeration to write the unbearable burden of life for the little black child.
But it is this dirty and thin little black boy who is struggling under the pressure of life, but he is so alert and full of spirituality-the work describes this with fairy tales: he can hear the sound of his hair falling to the ground, see the magical gas on the lake, feel the warmth of the starlight, climb up and down against the high pier like a gecko, imagine the train station getting up and running, and see a carrot so magical. He is so sensible, self-respecting and kind. He carefully collected flower handkerchiefs that condensed Agatha's love; Miss Kikuko felt sorry for him when she saw that he was too tired to pull the bellows, and wanted to take him away. He struggled back to the bellows. Kikuko girl sent him Wowotou, and he was moved to tears, but he covered his face with his hand to prevent others from seeing his tears. Knowing the blacksmith's sinister intentions, he tried his best to stop the masons from fighting with the blacksmith.
It is through the cruel contrast of the above two disharmonies that the novel expresses sympathy for the unfortunate childhood of the little black child. Behind this kind of compassion is a criticism of social life in a specific historical period. Although the author deliberately played down the background of the story, readers can still know that the story happened during the Cultural Revolution from the specific language and actions of the characters. The reason why the smart and kind little black boy who should be sitting in a bright classroom to study is so miserable is obviously due to family, society, politics and many other reasons. The cruel stepmother made the family heartless, and the little blacksmith showed the viciousness of the people. In 1960s and 1970s, the ultra-left route caused widespread poverty in rural areas of China.
In such a specific environment, it is of special significance that the crystal clear and golden shell is matched with lively silver juice. Carrots are portrayed so magically that it is not just a matter of artistic skill. On the one hand, as the creation of the little nigger's strange feelings, it makes the little nigger look more spiritual, but more importantly, as a symbol with rich meaning, it reflects the little nigger's yearning for purity, happiness or another world in his unfortunate life. This imagination enhanced the image of the little black boy. The little black man's eyes are persistent. Ten days after seeing the transparent carrot for the first time, he went to the vegetable field to look for it, but he still couldn't find it. This ending implies the writer's disappointment and tragic evaluation of life. This kind of disappointment and tragic evaluation may be regarded as the theme of this novel. This theme is also reflected in other characters in the novel. Little masons and Kikuz girls are the embodiment of beauty and goodness. Their images are beautiful. They care about the little black children as much as their own relatives, but in the end, Kikuko's beautiful eyes with long eyelashes were destroyed by white stones. Even the old blacksmith sang operas expressing the hardships of life all day. In this sense, the image of the little black boy itself is a symbol of that kind of hard and depressed life.